The footballer teacher

Hamidu Kasinde favourite aspect about teaching was the relationships he formed with his students and the hundreds he inspired. After 38 years of teaching, he retired in September 2006 and worked at the Masindi District Service Commission until 2016. The 72-year-old, who was a member of the historical 1978 Uganda Cranes squad that played at the finals of the Africa Cup of Nations.
Hamidu Kasinde grew up in Mparo, Buhanika Sub-county in Hoima District. His parents were Mohammed Rwakasindi and Najjemba, who both passed on. Kasinde’s father was a butcher although he says, he was the one who inspired him to become a teacher.
“There was no teacher in the whole village while I was growing up and my father wanted me to work for the community,” he said. And Kasinde never wanted to let his father down.
“I started thinking like a teacher very early in my childhood and after joining the profession, I realised it would suit me since it allowed me time especially during holidays to play my sports,” he said. He boasts that he was good in football and athletics where his school record in 400 metres at Bishop Stuart College stood for eight years.

Sowing the seeds
Kasinde went to Bwikya Muslim Primary School in his neighbourhood before joining Duhaga Secondary School until 1964. He then joined Bishop Stuart College in Mbarara before seeking his teaching badges at St. John the Baptist Ggaba Primary Teachers’ College (PTC) where he graduated in 1979. He received his Diploma in Primary Education from the defunct National Teachers’ College (NTC) Masindi 15 years later in 1994.
Right after secondary school, Kasinde was hired as a teacher at Kigede Primary school in Hoima in 1969 before he joined Duhaga Primary School. He later went on to become a caretaker headmaster at Nyamirima for six years until 1976. He was later transferred to Kiryandongo at Diima Primary School where he was the headmaster until March 1977. The next two years saw him take reins at Kasomoro and his next assignments were at Murro (1980-81), Kyabigambire (1982-87) and Masindi Army Barracks (1988-93) before retiring at Kinyara in 2006. Kasinde was also chairman of the head teachers association for 12 years.

Building a legacy
In his retirement, Kasinde serves as a member on the Federation of Uganda Football Associations (FUFA) ethics and integrity committee. But away from his football passion, he engages in farming.
During his long career, Kasinde made a significant contribution to education in Bunyoro sub-region.
He boasts of building classrooms wherever he was deployed, improving academic performance as well as championing music and drama. For instance, in 1991, together with the then music teacher Miriam Nyakato they helped Mbarara Army School lift the national trophy in a drama about HIV/Aids.
“In 2005, I managed to get 19 students with Aggregate 4 but since that time it has been very hard to find even a single pupil get those grades in the whole of Masindi District,” he says.
Asked about what made him stand out, Kasinde says he was honest, friendly to both pupils and teachers, exemplary and he ensured that he held regular meetings with staff.
“Some of my learners who thought I was a bad person because I pushed them about meet me these days and appreciate me,” he adds.
On retirement in 2007, he was employed by the Education Standards Agency as an inspector yet he was also an author of Runyoro-Rutooro at the National Curriculum Development Centre before he joined the District Service Commission where he worked from 2012 until 2016.

A job of rewards
Kasinde admits that teaching was not as rewarding financially as it was fulfilling and exciting. “I taught some kadogos after the NRA war and also inspired other teachers to become head teachers. I have offspring in the profession wherever I go,” he says. “That is the part that remains with you,” he said.
Kasinde is also a family man. He has three wives and is raising 28 children some of whom are already teachers including Prof Friday Ismail, nurses, auditors, an accountant and an Information Technology expert and is now taking care of some grandchildren.